


i look up you're standing next to me

by cinderlily



Series: Fork Up [1]
Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: College AU, M/M, Meet-Cute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-22
Updated: 2016-10-22
Packaged: 2018-08-23 21:37:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8343733
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cinderlily/pseuds/cinderlily
Summary: Connor was just trying to get some sun on a not-so-hot day at ASU when he gets bowled over by a hot guy.





	

The weather was amazing, not standing on the sun hot or raining or humid and that was something that Connor could only say about six days a year which meant it was going to take advantage of it. He left his dorm room and threw his headphones on, heading over the bridge from the PV dorms to campus. He had homework he could be doing right now, but that was a problem for future Connor. 

It wasn’t surprising to find that most of the other students had similar thoughts to him, but thankfully ASU was a big enough school that there was ample space to find your own person zone. He found a nice patch of grass where the sun could shine on him, put on his sunglasses and laid back. 

Later he might try and join in on one of the games that were surrounding him but … his own music and his own space in a patch of perfectly warm air was just about the best thing he could imagine. It wasn’t that he didn’t like his roommate but there was only so much he could freaking take of gaming and beer pong and that was _saying something_. 

He was lulling into a nice half nap state when suddenly something hit his side and he sat up just in time to find a half naked guy on his lap. 

Not that he was _complaining_ about said half naked dude on his lap. The guy was fucking hot as hell and sweaty and giving him a lot of thoughts, most surrounding the last time he got laid but he wasn’t exactly prepared for it.

“Holy fucking shit dude,” Connor said. “Watch where you’re going?” 

The guy’s face, under it’s unshaven goodness, went a little red. “Sorry, sorry. But maybe you shouldn’t lay in the middle of the grass?” 

There was an accent, definitely, not that Connor was good at classifying it. Not British? That was about all he had. The guy shifted and got up. Connor saw that he had a soccer ball in his hands. 

“You know we have places that have actual factual soccer goals set up, right?” he said, still feeling a little annoyed at being fallen over by Hotty. (Hey, he didn’t have a name.) 

Hotty looked annoyed. “You have to reserve. Like we know when Arizona will not be a hell hole so we can play football. So we just play on an open field, where sports are meant to be played. Not naps.” 

“I wasn’t _napping_ ,” Connor groused, standing up. “I was soaking up the sun.” 

“More like reflecting it,” Hotty smirked. 

Connor looked him up and down. “You talk a big game, oh shirtless wonder, you want to back that up with some game?” 

Hotty looked at the ball in his hand and then skeptically at Connor. “You play?” 

All four years of high school, it’d been his summer sport when he wasn’t playing hockey and his team had gone all state _twice_ but he wasn’t telling this to that guy. He shrugged. “I dabble. Can’t be too hard, if you can play.” 

Hotty narrowed his eyes and turned around to his group of friends, all standing staring at them. He yelled something in his own language and Connor just watched as the guys chuckled to themselves. 

“You play with that team,” he pointed to the group on the left, the one who all weirdly looked like male models. Did they have a modeling school at ASU? Was that something he’d been missing out on? Cause damn. He needed to find that school and infiltrate it. 

He slipped his iPhone into his deep pocket, thankful he was wearing his work out shorts rather than his jeans. He walked over to the group and found them already huddled up and speaking rapid-fire in a language he was not going to catch on. 

“Anyone going to tip me in?” 

A brick house of blonde looked at him and pointed out the pop-up goals. “Get the ball in there.” 

Connor rolled his eyes. “Really? Never would have caught that. Do we have a Captain? Rules?” 

“Get the ball to him,” Brick house pointed at a small brown-headed dude who smiled and waved. 

Yeah, that was a hell to the fucking no on that one but it was probably just as well. He stepped out onto the imaginary pitch and got into position as one guy threw the ball in and it tipped to their advantage. He hadn’t played in about six months, and that called for a rather quick readjustment but once he got his breath back in him he went for broke. 

Some time and two goals from him later they game was called because it was actually getting too warm again. Their team had won, if winning was a term you could use in this type of pick up and he had pushed himself to the brink. It felt… good. 

What felt better was catching sight of Hotty looking at him in surprise. Hotty’s teammates were all ‘casually’ walking away from him as he walked towards Connor and Connor had the best shit eating grin he could muster while still gasping for breath and downing the water his teammates had given him. 

“Dabble?” 

Connor blinked faux-innocently. “What? Was I good?” 

“You bastard,” Hotty laughed. “You have played before.” 

“A bit,” Connor said, still not willing to concede the truth. “Loser buys me some ice tea?” 

The guy looked at him for a minute and shrugged. “Deal. **If** you tell me the truth…” 

Connor nodded and pointed at the bridge. “There’s a decent restaurant type thing in there. Plus I can change my shirt.” 

Hotty, who was putting on his shirt unfortunately, caught the last part and nodded. “You live in Main?” 

“PV West, actually,” he sighed. “You know, fuck the shirt. I’m thirsty.” 

“I’m in Manzanita,” Hotty commented, as he grabbed some stuff and turned to say something to one of his teammates. They walked off. “We get a floor. Year abroad.” 

Connor made a face. “And you picked Arizona?” 

“Picked nothing,” he sighed. “But it is different enough from Germany.” 

Germany. Well, that explained the golden G-d thing and the whole language barrier.

“Your English is good,” Connor commented. 

“So’s yours, you should be proud,” the guy sniped.

Connor couldn’t help but smile. 

By the time they got to the little restaurant in Main and he’d ordered his tea, Hotty ordered a soda and thing of French Toast for some reason, they sat across from each other in that weird silence. Hotty kept looking at him. 

“What?” 

“You said I buy you iced tea and you give me the truth,” he raised an eyebrow. 

So Connor gave it to him, told him about back home and how he’d played soccer intramural when he was a kid then took it seriously in high school. It earned him a kick to the shin but it was worth it when he got the story back. How most of his friends who were with him and played soccer in high school but Hotty’d been all about hockey. 

That brought open Connor’s favorite topic, _hockey_. They went through their teams and their players and it was like the conversation was between old friends not two people who had no idea the other’s names. He kept meaning to insert it into the conversation but then Hotty would bring up the 1999 Stars’ call that got them the cup and they’d end up fighting for twenty minutes over whether it was good or not. (IT WAS SO NOT.) 

Hotty looked at his phone and suddenly started to curse in German. 

“What?” 

“Lab, I have lab. Scheiße,” he stood up and grabbed at his bag. “I’m going to be late.” 

“Where is it?” 

Hotty looked took out his notebook and groaned. “Near Gammage in twenty.” 

He felt his eyebrows go wide. That dude was fucked. He was about to say something about maybe trying to grab his car from the parking lot to get him there but the guy was out the door. 

The realization that he didn’t have the guys name, number, or anything other than his dorm hit him hard and he felt a swoosh of a let down. He got up. He had no other classes for the day. 

He walked out the door of Main and headed towards his dorm, he really needed a shower and possibly a nap. Except a hand landed on his shoulder and he turned to see Hotty with a small smile. 

“Forgot this,” Hotty slipped him a piece of paper and then turned and ran. 

Connor opened it up. 

_Tobias, Room 419, 6025550508_

Connor’s face lit up. 

He took his phone out of his pocket and typed out. 

“ _Hope you made it. The name is Connor by the way. PV West 606._ ”

After he got out of the shower he got a response.

“ _Two minutes late, boo. Hey Connor. Free for dinner?_ ”

**Author's Note:**

> Hockey sad, sap good. 
> 
> Title from Brighter than Sunshine by Aqualung
> 
> "I didn't believe in destiny  
> I look up you're standing next to me  
> What a feeling"


End file.
